Free Republic

Just seven months into his term -- and 14 months before the 2010 midterm election -- and could it be, is President Obama already a lame duck? With his passive management style -- which inevitably led to overreaching and heavy-handedness by Congressional Democrats Obama has made himself largely irrelevant on many of the issues he ran on, from health care "reform" to "resetting" our foreign relations. Here are seven signs that Obama's political suasion is waning.[NOTE: Copying and reposting this in full is a copyright violation, which is why I posted only the introductory bit.]

The U.S. Postal Service is projected to lose $7 billion in 2009 and the same amount in 2010 – this after a succession of postal rate increases since 2006 (first class postage rose 2¢ to $0.39 for the first ounce and is now $0.44) – and thousands of branches coast-to-coast are curtailing services and may be shuttered. Is government-run mail delivery really the best analogy Obama could have come up with to assuage people’s fears about government-run healthcare? Maybe he’s been hanging around Joe Biden too long. Oh, and, contrary to Obama’s assertions, FedEx and UPS are not “doing just...

At a town hall meeting with several hundred union members, Obama said he had a great conversation with McCain at the forum at Saddleback Church sponsored by the popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren. The two candidates shook hands, briefly hugged and stood onstage with Warren, the first time they appeared together in public since the end of the primary season. But Sunday, after praising the Arizona senator as a "genuine American patriot," the Democratic presidential hopeful got back to business -- methodically tearing into McCain's health care, tax and energy policies and criticizing his advisers. "McCain says 'Here's my plan,...

Obama also greeted Scott Boyd, a 42-year-old neurosurgeon from Columbia, who said he's a lifelong Republican but voted for Obama in Saturday's primary. They talked briefly about the cost of malpractice insurance, and Boyd said afterward he was impressed with Obama's grasp of the issue. Boyd said he has never been this excited about an election. "He's an aggregator," he said. "I think he can bring people together. For me to be brought out of my Republican shell – I'm a convert now."